Making A Cable Box Pretty

Ah, another bedroom post. I apologize. One of these days it’ll be done and life can resume normalcy;)

In the meantime, let’s chat about the ugly eyesore that was sitting on my dresser, shall we?

I mean, the room is looking soooo purdy, I just HAD to figure out some way to make this thing go away.

I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to try hiding it with one of those cool aluminum sheets – I’ve seen them at Hobby Lobby and Home Depot, though I’m sure lots of other places carry them as well. They have different patterns and shapes…I figured, what better time than now? Let’s go for it! I picked up one sheet at Hobby Lobby (with a coupon it was $7!):

And that one sheet, along with scissors and a tiny bit of paint turned that ugly cable box into this:

Pretty cool, right?!

This was one of those “not-sure-if-this-is-gonna-work-totally-winging-it” kinda projects, so it’s not the most perfect things ever, but hey, it certainly looks better than before.

First, I laid it on top of the box to eyeball what size I’d need. I bent it (this stuff is bendable which is a beautiful thing!) to see where to cut, and just used some heavy duty scissors.

Don’t worry if you bend it wrong, just unbend it and start again.

Now…how to cover the front?

With my remaining scrap, I made a little piece by bending it so it would cover the front and a little of each side:

I made sure to bend it a little tighter so it was nice an snug fit around the box.

PLEASE be careful with these edges and when you’re cutting – this stuff is seriously SHARP. I may have cut myself once…or twice…and gotten snags on my shirt…not kidding peeps, sharp stuff!

Once I was happy with it, I got out some paints and ended up just brushing over it quickly with some leftover SW Rainwashed. I didn’t care about it looking perfect – I wanted it to look a little beat up and not ‘brand new’…

When it was dry, I fit it on top of the box again, and here we are!

Now, I’m not saying this will work for ALL cable boxes, but it works for ours. The nice hole-y pattern allows for ventilation and keeps it from overheating (always have to let those boxes breathe!) AND we’re still able to access it with the remote control. The other night, my daughters and I were going to climb in bed and watch Fixer Upper – I told them to go upstairs and get it all set up, I’d be up in a minute. My daughter comes running downstairs, all confused, “Mommy! The box is gone!! I can’t turn on the TV!”

Wonderful idea! Making the cable box look classy. Who would have believed it unless shown what you did. I have hated the black plastic/metal cable box look, but thought there was nithing I could do to improve the cable box appearance. I am someone who hates dark wood and black metal. Reason is they show dust quickly.

I will be getting metal sheets later tomorrow and our cable boxes will be covered by tomorrow night. In what department are the metal sheets in Home Depot or Lowe’s?

I think one could also use wood lattice, so long as a spacer is used to keep top and bottom of cable box from resting against the cover material for ventilation purposes. So many ideas now. Thank you.

Welcome

Hi there! I’m Liz, a former teacher-turned-stay-at-home mom to three kids, with a passion to create a warm and inviting home on a budget. This blog all started when I’d put the babies down for a nap, and squeeze in a project during those precious couple of hours! My hope is that you visit this page and feel inspired to do a little “naptime decorating” of your own. Thank you so much for stopping by!